One of the most famous names on the Starfleet register is U.S.S. Hood. The current U.S.S. Hood, NCC 2541, is an Excelsior class starship launched in 2287. Hood underwent a period of extensive testing with the experimental Transwarp drive before finally being commissioned on stardate 8457.5. Her motto is taken from HMS Hood and is 'Ventis Secundis' meaning 'With favourable winds'. This Hood was launched during the time which NX 2000 Excelsior was still undergoing testing with her revolutionary new Transwarp drive. Hood was originally designed to incorporate the Transwarp drive, but initial testing revealled problems. By the 2290s, Hood had been converted to conventional warp drive and had taken her rightful place as one of the new vanguard exploratory vessels, pushing back the boundaries of the final frontier.

The first commanding officer of this new Excelsior class U.S.S. Hood was Captain Thomas Saunders. Saunders had been the Executive Officer aboard the old Constitution class U.S.S. Hood and was continuing the "family line" of the Hood. Saunders requested and received Commander Richard Hawkins from the Excelsior. Hawkins had extensive knowledge of the Transwarp system aboard the Excelsior, NX 2000 and was a little bitter with Captain Styles for replacing him with Captain Mongomery Scott for a period in 2285. Hawkins soon joined the Hood as her Chief Engineer - determined not only to whip the Transwarp drive into operational condition, but to deliberately exceed all the standards set by the Excelsior. Hawkins was on his last 5 years as a Starfleet officer before retirement and was determined to go out on the Hood. This was family.

With the declaration of Transwarp drive as a failure, both Excelsior and Hood were converted back to standard warp drive - some argue that the Hood never was actually fitted with Transwarp drive. The Hood then went on to a successful 5-year deep space mission of exploration and diplomacy, attaining First Contact with 2 races and discovering over a dozen new sentient forms of life.

Captain Matthew Tovey took command of the Hood on stardate 9523.5. The Hood was launched from spacedock after the reports on the explosion at Praxis first reached Starfleet Headquarters. Hood was sent to Starbase 24 as a back-up should the Enterprise-A not be ready. After the arrest of Captain James T. Kirk and Doctor Leonard H. McCoy, Hood was sent to find the Enterprise-A but was 'unable to locate her'. By stardate 11222.5, USS Hood was the flagship of Admiral Matthew Tovey and the Fourth Fleet. The Hood operates from Starbase 77, currently the closest starbase to the Klingon border. Shortly after this, Hood was put in for SLEP refit at starbase 11, with Excelsior class U.S.S. Albion taking over the role of flagship for the 4th Fleet.

Currently, as of Stardate 11733, U.S.S. Hood is two thirds the way through her Service Life Extension Programme. These modifications should see the Hood well into the twenty-fourth century. Admiral Tovey transfered the Hood back to the 4th Fleet on stardate 11793.5 once Albion's refit was completed. U.S.S. Hood is now under the command of Captain Christa Peel and once more is assigned to 'boldly go....'.



The previous starship Hood.

Constitution class NCC 1703, was launched on March 27th 2246 - 330 years after the commencement of construction on her namesake, HMS Hood. Hood was constructed at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards and is the sister ship of the famous USS Enterprise 1701. The first Commanding Officer was Captain Richard Blake.

Like her other Constitution class sisters, Hood revolutionised the Starfleet. In 2260, when the 12 were selected, Hood was one of the first selected for the 5-year missions. Hood's 5 year mission began in 2266, 20 years after her launch. Whilst the U.S.S. Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk grabbed the headlines as Flagship of the Fleet, Hood was always a close second under Captain Emma Roberts.

Stardate 4210 saw the Hood redirected from it's supply mission to Science Station Delta Zero Five and instead directed to Starbase 10. At Starbase 10 Federation Representative St. John Talbot boarded. U.S.S. Hood then led a fleet of Federation colony ships to Nimbus III, where they rendez voused with their Klingon and Romulan counterparts.

The Enterprise, under James T. Kirk, had encountered 'complications' involving Klingons on the planet Neural. First officer Spock had been injured and thus the Enterprise was taken off this high-profile mission and the second ship of the fleet, Hood, was substituted at the last moment.

Stardate 4729.4 see the Hood under Captain Roberts diverted to rendez vous with the U.S.S. Potemkin, U.S.S. Excalibur and flagship U.S.S. Lexington. Together, the four ships would perform wargames against the starship Enterprise, equipped with the new M-5 computer. The Hood was fired upon by the Enterprise during the disasterous M-5 computer trials. Along with USS Potemkin and U.S.S. Lexington, the Hood suffered casualties. The U.S.S. Excalibur was not as lucky, her crew all being killed and the ship reduced to a floating hulk. The U.S.S. Hood had to report to starbase for repairs lasting months. The paperwork following this disaster lasted even longer, involving a formal inquiry.

The refit would allow U.S.S. Hood to remain in service for longer than expected. However, the incident also highlighted the encroaching age of the design. Plans were already afoot to redesign the Constitution class starships. The Enterprise was to be the first ship back into spacedock. Constitution herself suffering badly during her five-year mission [Author's note: possibly even destroyed if the publicity material suggesting Enterprise was the only vessel to survive the 5-year mission. But I'd take that with a pinch of salt].

In the early 2273 the refit of Hood was brought forward when the V'ger Crisis of stardate 7411 occured. Captain Emma Roberts order the ship at maximum warp for as long as possible in order to try to assist the Enterprise. Hood was almost shaken apart by the exertion, her Chief Engineering Officer, Lieutenant Commander Hawkins, was heard swearing from one end of Engineering to the other as his beloved starship was strained to breaking point. Hood never participated in the crisis itself, but arrived at Earth barely 40 hours after Admiral Kirk and the Enterprise had saved the day. Hood limped into San Francisco Orbital Yards looking the worse for wear.

Despite being offered a promotion to flag rank, as had happened with James T. Kirk, Captain Emma Roberts declined. She saw herself in the command chair of the Hood for another five-year mission, and no amount of bribery from Starfleet Headquarters would change this. Captain Roberts managed to keep most of her crew for the second mission, although Commander Singh was promoted for his own command, and she lost her Chief Engineer - Commander Richard Hawkins - for a brief stint on the U.S.S. Potemkin, although this wasn't to last as he wanted to return to his 'home' on the 'Mighty Hood '.

The Hood was involved in some classified clashes with the Romulans during the late 2270s, rumours abounded that she even fired upon a Romulan Warbird. Commodore Emma Roberts was succeeded in 2280 by Captain Elizabeth Buckingham. Captain Buckingham was well schooled in diplomacy and was involved in a memorable encounter with Klingon Captain Koloth. The exchange between the captains is often played at Starfleet Academy as an example of the linguistic sword-play that can occur in deep space.

Author's Notes on the starships Hood:

Little is actually known in canon Star Trek history about the starships named Hood. There have been two - Constitution class NCC 1703, U.S.S. Hood and later in Star Trek: The Next Generation we were introduced to an Excelsior class U.S.S. Hood. The first ship named Hood appeared once as a squadron of Constitution class vessels fought the M-5 computer equipped Enterprise. The Potemkin, Lexington and Hood were all badly damaged in the exercise, with the Excalibur being tragically lost. The history concerning the refit of the Hood in the 2270s is based upon conjecture. Established Trek art department notes infer that the Constitution class were all refit after the 2260s, Hood was therefore part of this programme. A Service Life Extension Programme [SLEP] is standard procedure for naval warships of a certain age. Iowa Class battleships and various classes of aircraft carrier [e.g. Essex class] have also undergone such programmes.

The latter Hood, as seen in ST: The Next Generation, was the previous assignment of Commander William T. Riker before he joined the Enterprise-D. No launch date has ever been officially established for the Excelsior class Hood, but the registry number, and configuration of the studio model, would suggest somepoint around the time of Excelsior in her NX 2000 incarnation. The reason for this is due to the discovery of photographs of the Hood model from "Encounter at Farpoint", disproving the long-held belief that the Hood was NCC 42296. The actual model [whose registry is far too small to read onscreen] is actually NCC 2541. The belief that this was not changed for filming is supported by the next appearance of the Excelsior studio model which was dressed up as U.S.S. Repulse NCC 2544, which would require only the simple change of the final digit in the registry number. The appearance of the Hood in DS9 as a CGI model had the incorrect registry number of 42857 - same as the U.S.S. Lakota - in error. It is therefore quite possible that except for Mike Okuda's displays, we have never seen a Hood registered as NCC 42296. The Memory Alpha website attempts to reconcile this anomaly by stating that there were two canon U.S.S. Hoods and the NCC 2541 therefore was an anomaly in filming. Given what happened with the U.S.S. Valkyrie this will probably turn into a semi-canon unseen Hood from somewhere between 2287 and 2361.

The Excelsior class Hood was commanded by Captain Robert DeSoto, and was seen in the episodes Tin Man, Encounter at Farpoint and was referred to on various occasions. The Hood was originally intended to appear in 'Encounter at Farpoint' as an Ambassador class starship, and it is therefore possible that the errant registry number of NCC 42296 was given to this vessel in anticipation of it being Ambassador class. The U.S.S. Hood appeared as a CGI model during the dramatic sixth season of Deep Space Nine, appearing in many of the decisive space battles of that series. Hood's last mention was as part of the squadron of starships racing to assist Picard's Enterprise-E against the Remans in Star Trek: Nemesis.

Author's Notes on the namesake for the starships Hood:

The namesake for U.S.S. Hood in the Original Series of Star Trek was the battlecruiser H.M.S. Hood, laid down on the day of the Battle of Jutland. Hood was the pride of the Royal Navy between the two World Wars. Hood was truly the flagship of the fleet, and it was a dramatic encounter between this legend and her nemesis, Bismarck, that placed her in the annals of history. During the fateful encounter between H.M. warships Hood, Prince of Wales and the German battleship Bismarck, a shell from the Bismarck pierced the armour of the Hood, destroying her in two dramatic explosions. Hood sank in barely three minutes, taking with her all but three of her crew. It is safe to state that the United Kingdom was in mourning and a state of utter shock and disbelief when the news was broken. It was after the destruction of H.M.S. Hood that the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, ordered every warship available to sink the Bismarck. In a matter of days this was done, and a chapter of naval history was written.

H.M.S. Hood was discovered on Friday 20th July 2001. Hood lies in three major pieces, the central portion lies inverted some distance away from the bow and stern. A memorial service was held by the final survivor of the Hood, Ted Briggs. To the left is an image of the bow section of the Hood, where the memorial plaque now lies. H.M.S. Hood is a designated war grave and it is the hope of the author of this website that the Hood is respected and left in peace. Click on the image of the Hood's bow to visit the website of the H.M.S. Hood association with all the information on the 20th century Hood that one could want.

All images of HMS Hood crest and HMS Hood bow picture are copyright © HMS Hood Association. All Rights Reserved.
The Author encourages visitors to this page to click on the picture of the bow of HMS Hood, or the button below, to visit their website.